TEL AVIV, November 26, 2006 (WAFA) – Yesh Din, an Israeli HR organisation said Sunday the admission of Israeli Attorney General that “the situation of law enforcement in West Bank is not only unsatisfactory but also a very low level” is not enough, saying that effective action required to prevent settlers attacks on Palestinians.

At the Conference on Public Law in Caesarea on Friday, in response to a question by Dr. Eyal Gross of Tel-Aviv University, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, said "as you know, this is a reality that we have lived with almost from the beginning of settlement in the [Occupied Palestinian] territories to this day. It has changed forms but there has never been any period when the situation was satisfactory."

He added "it has various explanations: beginning with objective difficulties deriving from the non-civilian environment, the military reality, the general lack of cooperation of the injured population, not to speak of the suspected residents, and, there's no way around this, the state of Israel does not devote enough resources to the subject."

"We as a law enforcement system are working there by remote control. It is first of all a matter of the army, and the army has priorities and missions it usually views as more urgent than deploying forces and the police has problems there and there is a complete range of problems. I definitely agree with you the situation is completely unsatisfactory," he admitted.

Commenting on Mazuz’s remarks, Michael Sfard, Yesh Din's legal advisor said: "We welcome Attorney General Mazuz's open admission of the incompetence of law enforcement authorities' handling of settler attacks against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank. But the admission is no substitute for effective action. "

In September Yesh Din (Israeli Volunteers for Human Rights) published A Semblance of Law, a report that revealed a ninety percent failure rate in West Bank Police investigations of settler violence against Palestinians.

"The report recommends a comprehensive series of concrete policy changes but Mazuz has yet to act to implement them. Israel has a legal obligation under the laws of armed conflict to protect civilian population from settler violence and Mazuz must lead a concentrated effort to this end,"  Sfard concluded.

H.M. (21:43 P) (19:43 GMT)